I'm gonna read in the book of
Acts chapter one, verses one through verse eight. And then
we're gonna follow strictly through our outline tonight. I actually
consider it a privilege for us to be going through the book
of Acts. And if God gives you grace to follow us in this series,
this class in the book of Acts is going to last exactly one
year. 52 weeks approximately, because
we are dealing with 28 chapters in the book of Acts, 28 chapters. And within the framework of those
28 chapters, there will at least be two studies per chapter. So that will get us into a year's
study. The book of Acts is a very unusual
book, a very important book, a very critical book, I think,
for the church of Jesus Christ to understand. and recognize
it becomes for us a mirror. If we are able to see the depository
of truth latent in the book of Acts, we can see what God has
called us to be, and we can retrieve some of the things we may have
lost over 2000 years of history, and especially in our own generation,
the book of Acts will help us to recalibrate and recover some
of those fundamental priorities that the church has been called
to. It's a glorious, glorious book. My studies have just been
just joyful in my own heart, and I'm just hoping that the
Lord will be pleased to use this for us and for all who hear it
as well. You are using an outline that's
in landscape form, booklet form, and that's for you to be able
to write notes on the back. If the study Commences and we have
four or five questions or points that we're going to deal with
tonight And if we can get through them carefully enough, I don't
know if I can you know how I do But if we can get through them
carefully enough, and you have questions we are certainly Disposed
to want to answer questions. I hope and pray that that this
study in the book of Acts is fresh for you. Hope for some
of you, you've never ever been through the book of Acts and
that is gonna answer a lot of questions in terms of what the
nature of the church is and how it should function in terms of
God's calling it to be the unique institution that it is. So tonight is what we call the
introduction into the book of Acts. Let me read the first eight
verses and then we'll start to go to work. Chapter 1, verse 1. The former
treaties have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both
to do and teach. Until the day in which he was
taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments
unto the apostles whom he had chosen. To whom also he showed
himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being
seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the
kingdom of God. And being assembled together
with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you have
heard of me. For John truly baptized with
water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. When they therefore were come
together, they asked him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time
restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them,
it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the
Father hath put in his own power, but you shall receive power after
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and you shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and
unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Luke stops at verse eight
with the direct words of our Lord Jesus Christ in his incarnate
state after his resurrection, having spent some time with his
apostles. The last thing he says to the
apostles, which is going to be critical to our understanding
the book of Acts is you shall be endued with power from on
high and you shall be my witnesses. And you will be my witnesses
specifically in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then to the uttermost
parts of the earth. That's a key to the book of Acts.
So as we work through our outline, one of the first things we want
to deal with is the purpose of the book, the purpose of the
book of Acts. That's what's in your outline.
The purpose is whenever you read a book, you really want to know
the overall purpose of the book, the design of the book. The scope
of the book, the agenda of the book. What's the book about?
What is its objective? What is the goal of the book
of Acts? That's what we want to know. Well, in order for us
to grasp that, we have to know that the book of Acts is a joint
venture between the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. and
they fundamentally entail what they are about in Acts 1 through
4, as well as in Luke 1 through 4. So keep your hand here and
go with me back to Luke 1 through 4, and we'll gain just some insight
as to the purpose for which the book of Acts was written. Now,
as I'm going back to the book of Luke, what you are clearly
assuming is that the author of Luke and the author of Acts are
one and the same, and the answer is yes. If you didn't know, the
author of the book of Acts is the same author of the book of
Luke, and it is Luke, and we'll talk about him shortly. Will
you notice what Luke says in verses one through four? For
as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a
declaration of those things which are most surely believed among
us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning
were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to
me also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first
to write unto thee in order most excellent Theophilus. Here's
the purpose for which he is writing to this person of whom we'll
talk about later on down the line. In order that you might
know the certainty of those things wherein you have been instructed. Going back to chapter one of
Acts, notice what he says in verses one and two. The former treaties have I made,
O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach, until
the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the
Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had
chosen. The Arthur Luke, and that's who
he is, that's one of the points we'll deal with in point two,
is writing the epistle of Acts, or the letter of what we call
the Acts, and I'll explain that a little bit down the line, for
this one purpose, to actually inscripturate, or what we call
codify, what was already being orally communicated throughout
the church for the last several months and years prior to the
writing of the gospels. In other words, what you may
know is this, what Luke is writing is really oral tradition, oral
tradition. If you recall what he said in
Acts chapter Luke chapter one was those things that we had
already believed and were assured of having been told to by the
apostles are those who were with him. So what Luke is simply doing
is transcribing oral tradition, transcribing what he had heard.
With that, what we come to understand is that the inscripturation of
the word going from oral to tradition, from oral to tradition becomes
for us now, ladies and gentlemen, a principle, a principle. Why is Luke feeling compelled
to write what people were already believing by way of oral tradition? Well, several reasons. One is,
Oral tradition has been the way the human race has functioned
from the beginning of time. Our cultures transmit and pass
from generation to generation stories about whatever the culture
or that society or that ethnic group has been identified as
and has experienced. Tradition is passed from generation
to generation. You know that. Stories get passed
on, don't they? Here's the problem with oral
tradition. When you start, the tradition is fairly clear. By
the time you get two or three years into the tradition, the
fish has grown from 18 inches to 24 inches. And before long,
you have gone from a fish to a whale. Now, that's a little
bit of humor, but it's actually true. When you do a historical
analysis of oral traditions, they morph. This is what we call
morphation. They morph. The story morphs.
And often there are integrations into the story, syncretistic
integrations of other ideas and other notions, which means Oral
tradition, while it can be good, is not as accurate a methodology
we have discovered as written tradition. So often what God
has raised up in cultures, whether it's in the Christian tradition,
or whether it's in the secular tradition, or are those who would
be authors, people who would be writers, individuals who would
be called scribes, And in this case, the spirit of God moves
upon a man that we're gonna talk about here shortly to compel
him to write what he had come to know and to believe. Again, this is how Luke puts
it. And I just wanna impress this upon your mind. He says
it like this in Luke chapter one, for as much as many have
taken in hand to set forth an order, what that means is there
have been people among Luke, among the apostles, among the
early church, who were asserting that they had expertise in understanding
what was going on during the days of Jesus, during the days
of the apostles and Jesus, and shortly thereafter, and they
were giving their own testimonies. So there was much oral tradition
going about concerning Jesus. And it says, in order, a declaration
of those things which are most surely believed among us. Ladies
and gentlemen, what we are talking about is the message of the gospel.
The gospel was going forth orally. In other words, people were communicating
the gospel orally. They were sharing it from mouth
to mouth, from person to person, from family to family, from tribe
to tribe, from city to city. There was an oral dialogue around
the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, let me ask you the
question before we go on to deal with some of the implications
of Luke's assignment. Is that something that you find
yourself privileged doing? This is by way of application.
Do you find yourself privileged to orally share the gospel with
people? See, the time shortly after Jesus
Christ rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and the apostles
that went about their work was a very glorious time of what
we call gossip, the gossiping of the person and work of Jesus
Christ. It was a prominent, prolific,
pervasive practice. People were everywhere talking
about who Jesus was and what Jesus did and how he worked. And the apostles were authoritative
in expressing who Jesus was and what he did and how he worked.
Again, by way of exhortation, the question you and I would
have to ask is, 2,000 years removed from that first century church,
we have to ask ourselves, do we have the word of God wherewithal
fitted in our lips? Is the gospel still good news
to us? Is it such that we are more ready
to declare it than any other conversation, dialogue, subject
issue that comes to the forefront? Are we today as the church gospelers? That's a very serious question
and inquiry, isn't it? Well, that's the context in which
Luke found himself uh... compelled to and and and might
i say uh... overwhelmed by supervised by
the spirit of god to write down what we have is the gospel of
luke and what we have as the book of acts he said we believe
these things is not that we don't believe them we certainly believe
them but they need to be what we call codified when you take
oral tradition and you inscripture rated when you put it in a scribal
form are written form, what you do is codify it. You guys got
that? To codify it. That means to lock
it in. Once it's written, it's written.
In fact, the way the Romans used to put it is, what's written
is written. Written form for that time became
codified. It became authoritative. It became
clear. It became fixed. It became immutable. It became authoritative, and
that's what Luke is doing. He's taking the written form,
the spoken form, and putting it in the written form. Now,
I want to, by way of what Luke has been given assignment to
do, make an application to you. Luke said over in Acts chapter
1, verse 1, these words, the former treaties have I made.
You guys see line 1 of Acts 1? The former treaties have I made.
Now that's very technical terminology. That's Luke 1, 1, but we're in
Acts 1, 1 now. The former treaties have I made, O Theophilus. The word former treaties can
be simply translated, the first letter, the first words. He's referring to the gospel
of Luke. The word former there is our
Greek term proto, from which we get our term first, our beginning.
The word treaties there, I don't know why the King James wanted
to write a treaties other than the fact that King James wanted
to have some majestic overtones in the word is the Greek word
logon from which we get the term logos are the term words and
what Luke was saying is my first set of words Was the gospel of
Luke. I Wrote that he said having I
have made a theophilus of all that Jesus began both to what
do and teach now mark that last to those last two verbs because
I'm gonna get back to that when we deal with a later question
So inherent in Luke's objective was to write what we call the
historical narrative of the incarnation. The historical narrative of the
incarnation. He wrote it in a specific form
unique to Luke. Very much different than Matthew.
Very much different than Mark. Very much different than John,
as you know. Luke's gospel and the book of
Acts was really one joint venture. Luke's gospel in the book of
Acts was really one joint venture, I just want you to know that,
and I'll talk about the history in a moment. He says, the former
treaties are the beginning words, are the first words have I made,
O Theophilus, have I made is in what we call the past tense,
O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. That
would have meant that he was writing with regards to Christ's
missional words. until the day in which he was
taken up, which would have meant that he wrote with regards to
Christ's coming, Christ's ministry, Christ's death, Christ's resurrection,
and Christ's ascension. Until the day in which he was
taken up after that through the Holy Ghost, he had given commandment
unto the apostles whom he had chosen. So Luke is actually tying
the gospel with the book of Acts together. And for about a hundred
years, The Book of Acts and the Book of Luke were never separated. They were kept together until
it was necessary, through some of the challenges that were going
on in the first century, to codify and to, as it were, affirm the
four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If you know anything
about church history, you know that shortly after the Apostles
were established in their ministry and were being killed off because
most of them were martyred There was a lot of heresy entering
into the church Heretical teachings heretical notions. They primarily
fell under three molds legalism mysticism and Gnosticism Legalism,
mysticism, and Gnosticism. And Gnosticism actually embraced
both legalism and mysticism. Well, false writings, we call
these pseudepigraphas, false writings had occurred alleging
that they were apostolic in nature, when in fact they weren't. So
what had to occur by the end of the first century into the
second century was the early church fathers, the patriarchs,
of whom I'm gonna talk about in a little bit, had to decide
and decipher which books were authentic, which weren't. And
they put together the four accounts of the gospel as we have it,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And they separated Luke, I mean
Acts. Acts became its own independent
entity around about the middle toward the end of the second
century. But prior to that, it was one treaties altogether,
one complete unit. And we'll get into that. Let
me make an application here about going from the oral tradition
to the written tradition. From oral to written. We talk
about God's word as being an integral part of his ontological
nature. I know I just used some big words.
Don't be moved. But what we are really talking
about is what we have been learning in biblical theology. Biblical
theology is history according to who? History according to
Jesus. Biblical theology is history
according to Jesus. It's God's working out of human
events in a fashion wherein he weaves into it his own redemptive
purposes and manifest His glory through human events so that
His people can understand what He is up to. Biblical theology
is history according to Jesus Christ. And the Bible tells us
in Psalm 40 verse 7, Look, lo, regard, I come in the volume
of the book it is written of me. Isn't that what Psalm 40
verse 7 says? Now, if you and I recognize that
statement to be a legitimate proposition, There are some things
that have taken place with regards to the nature of the Word of
God. And it goes like this. The Word
of God is the eternal Logos, who is the second person of the
glorious triune Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Word
of God, we are told by John in John chapter one, verse one,
Though in the beginning was the word the logos and the word was
with God, right? So we are making a distinction
between God and the word at this moment Which means we have two
objects and then the next line says and the word was what God
which now we are establishing equality of essence though distinction
of persons y'all got that and It's important to hear what I'm
saying here with regards to a transition from oral tradition to written
tradition. So for us, we understand that
the Word is a person and He is the Son of God. He is the means
by which God created the universe. He is the means by which the
universe is sustained. He is the means by which the
universe operates and He is the goal and ends by which all things
are created. I'm quoting several verses now.
You should know them, Colossians chapter one, verse 15, Ephesians
chapter three, verse nine, Hebrews chapter one, verse one and two.
What I'm getting at is the word of God is eternal by nature,
and we call that the living word of God, the living word of God. As God is the living God, so
the word is the living God. Are you with me? This is before
time. Now, once time is brought into
being, which is a created thing, God brings time into being. He
brings events into being. He brings activities into being.
What he did in time ultimately was take the living word and
produce another activity that we call the spoken word. That means through the ministry
of the prophet or the ministry of the angels, God spoke into
humanity, his will and revelation throughout the course of human
history. Are y'all following me? So we go from the living
word to the spoken word, which is a second act, which constitutes
a revelation of who God is to humanity. We go from the living
word to the spoken word. And over time, the spoken word
became what we call the incarnate word, the incarnate word, the
incarnate word. Now the incarnate word is what
we are dealing with here in terms of Luke's addressing Theophilus
in terms of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. He is talking
about what we call the incarnate Word, right? And the Word was
made what? And did what? Dwelt, tabernacled
among us, and we beheld his glory, right? The glory of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So I am sharing
with you an intentional transition of purpose on the part of God
in his own self-revelation. For we know that God the Father
is understood as being the invisible God, who cannot be seen nor comprehended
apart from an intentional revelation of Himself, which revelation
can only come through His Son Jesus, correct? For Jesus is
the word out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speak
without the mouth opening. You can't know a person. You
can only know them by who they are, by what they think, how
they act. And so God is not revealed to us until Jesus Christ is manifested. That's the living word, but the
living word had to become the spoken word. And we call that
the word of prophecy as Hebrews chapter one, verse one, part
of what we call biblical theology. In time past, and in divers manners,
did God speak to our fathers through the what? Prophets. And what you will discover when
you read the Old Testament over and over and over again is that
the prophets would speak under influence of the Holy Ghost.
That's 2 Peter 1, verse 20. You guys remember that. Holy
men of old, and that's literally men, holy men of old spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The word of God never came to
them of their own compulsion, by their own drive, by their
own aspirations. They were overwhelmed by the
spirit of God and the spirit of God revealed, revealed. We
call that the opening of the heavens. Katalouso is the Greek
term, which means the heavens were opened up. God revealed
his purpose to them and they simply repeated what God said. Y'all got that? See, a prophet
doesn't conjure up something to talk about. He is simply a
vehicle that is available for revelation. And when he communicates
that revelation accurately, he is exercising the office of prophet. Kataluso means the heavens loosened. The word came from heaven. It
entered into the heart of the prophet and the spirit of God
moved him to speak, speak, speak. But you will read all through
your Bible where God would say to the prophet, write it down
in a book. Isn't that right? Write it down
in the book. That's in your outline. I'm for
time's sake I'm not going there write it down in a book in the
book of Deuteronomy Moses was told to take this book of the
law and Place it in the ark and that book of the law was to be
read every Sabbath day. You will read all through the
History of Israel where is it not written in the book of the
Kings or in the book of Solomon? or in the book of Jasper, or
in the book of the wars of the Lord. Then you will read that
God gave specific instructions like to Jeremiah. Jeremiah, take
these things and write them in a book. And then you read of
Daniel, in Daniel chapter 9, after many years of doing ministry
in exile, he begins to read the book of Jeremiah and he understands
the 70 years of Jeremiah, how they had expired, because he
read the book. And then we read in Habakkuk 2, verses 1, 2, and
3, where Habakkuk plainly said, the mess that we are in, the
trouble that we're going through, the situation in which Israel
is in, where Babylon is coming down from the north to destroy
her, and Israel is living like rank pagans, like they never
knew God, are seen as glory. It's upsetting me to no end.
Let me stand myself upon my watch, and I will wait to see what the
Lord will say to me. Let's call a watchman. You know
what he's doing? He is not conjuring up words.
He's waiting on God. I will stand upon my watch and
wait to see what the Lord will say to me. See means seer. He's waiting for a revelation
because he doesn't understand what God is up to. And God says
to Habakkuk, take this vision and write it down upon tablets
or scrolls and make it plain so that they that read it may
respond. For though the vision tarry,
wait for it because it will certainly come to pass. Now, ladies and
gentlemen, what I'm sharing with you right now, which is important,
is how that the living word becomes the oral word and the oral word
becomes the written word And especially after we have what
we call the incarnate word. The last word that God gives
to you and I, after Jesus's incarnation, which he will never again have
to be incarnated, is what we call the written word. See this
book we have in our hand? This is the word of God. You
guys got that? This book is the word of God.
But it started off as a living word, then it became the spoken
word, then it became the incarnate word, and then it was finally
concluded as the what? Written word of God. That's what
Luke is doing when he writes the epistle of Acts, the letter
to the Acts, as well as the gospel of Luke. And by way of principle
in your outline, we go from oral tradition to written manuscript.
Second Thessalonians 2.15, the apostle Paul said to the church
at Thessalonica. Again, this is around the time
when the church is struggling through false writings versus
true writings. Paul says, and we encourage you
to obey the traditions which were passed to you, whether by
word or by epistle. And so right away, we understand
that the church had to work through oral tradition as well as written
words of which the written words often they had to discern whether
or not they were legitimate and genuine apostolic writings or
not. Luke found himself in that same
category. He found himself in that same
category, which moves me to the next point of application, because
I know it may not seem like what I'm saying is important to you,
but it is. When God acts, he often acts in patterns. Being
the living word of God, he knows that for humanity, for him to
simply exist in his ontological glory without mediating that
glory to us in some form is to leave us to ourselves and to
leave us to ourselves is to leave us to our demise. If God cares
about me, who by nature walk in darkness, am inclined to evil,
I am as dumb as a rock by nature, he must communicate himself to
me in an efficacious way by which I can know him. Remember what
Luke said, the things which we most certainly know and believe. Well, God must move from simply
being God to speaking to me, speak Lord, your servant is listening. And if he's gracious enough to
not only speak, but manifest himself as he did in the person
of his son, Jesus Christ, we get to say by virtue of the operation
of the Spirit of God, we beheld his glory. The glory of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. I don't know
about you, but 37 years ago, when God manifested the glory
of his son to me in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, it
was the most exquisite revelation my soul ever did land upon. When the gospel was preached
to me in my mind's eye, visualized the Lord Jesus Christ for the
first time, I was paralyzed. The word in the Hebrew was astonished. I remember the day like as if
it was yesterday. How about you? She's what we
call a saving revelation of God. I'm in my room laying on the
floor, overwhelmed by the glory of God saying, thank you for
revealing this glorious being called Jesus Christ. Cause I
had never saw him before. I had heard about him many times. But one day the spirit of God
revealed Christ to my heart and it was, that was it. I was changed. I was changed. Joy gripped my
soul, hope gripped my soul and fear gripped my soul at the same
time. Can I tell you why? Because when
I saw Christ in his glory, I realized that I was undone. I was lost. I had been missing out on the
reality of life all those years and I was too dumb to know it.
And at that moment, I was pleading with God to save my soul. Don't let me die tonight without
affirming the reality of who Jesus is for me. And from that
day on, I have been on my journey. What did God leave me in order
to be able to enjoy this life changing revelation? He left
me a book. He left me this book. See, after
I got the revelation through the oracular expression of who
he is, who he was in the gospel, primarily by my wife, I had to
go to the book in order to learn of him. That's what the scripture
says. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. Be disciplined now. You've been
living an undisciplined life like an oxen without the yoke
all your days. Now put the yoke on and learn
of me. God gave me grace to do that. He gave you grace to do
that if you're a child of God. And you began learning about
Christ. Isn't that true? Learning about Christ. And the
lights have been on ever since. I say that to say this. What
God did in the history of Israel and taking the living word, who
he is, and making it the spoken word by which he communicated
to his people, and then taking that spoken word and putting
it in written form, write it down. He also does that today,
only the book that God writes is the human heart. I want you to hear this now before
we go on to our next point. The Hebrew writer tells us, in
your outline, I'm at my third point, a model of new covenant
theology. In Hebrews chapter 10, verse
16, these words. The idea of the word of God going
from living to oral to written is something that perpetuates
itself over and over again. Every time an individual becomes
converted, listen to this. This is the covenant, verse 16
of Hebrews 10. This is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days. Remember our God is a what kind of God? He's always
a covenant God. That means he never functions
whimsically. He never functions arbitrarily. God doesn't act. God responds. And he's always
responding according to his own predetermined purpose and foreknowledge,
right? God's own counsel is the basis
upon which he acts. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost always
in agreement doing what they do for their own glory. We happen
to be the beneficiaries. Now notice what he says here.
I want you to ask yourself the question. Have you ever experienced
this? This is the covenant that I'll
make with him After those days said the Lord I will put my laws
into their hearts Now watch this and in their minds Well, I write
them Do you see what? The statement is saying that
in the same way in which God takes the oral word the living
word and makes it the oral word He takes the oral word and makes
it the written word. He's still operating that way
every time he converts a sinner He takes what you read the written
page what you hear with your audible ears about the gospel
and the Spirit of God now takes that same word and writes it
on your heart, writes it on your mind, writes it on your heart,
writes it on your mind. In other words, it doesn't remain
in the book to simply be observed objectively when it comes as
a saving revelation It lands upon the heart and your heart
becomes the basis and premise for the inscription of the word.
Is that true? That's what changes you. Now
go in your Bible with me to second Corinthians chapter three, because
this is what Paul meant as well concerning the new Testament
promise of God taking that which is the living word becoming the
oral word through proclamation. and then making it the written
word, having already established it as the incarnate word. For
the incarnate word is written in the written word that you
and I have in the pages of scripture. But there's another work that
the Spirit of God does with all of that, by which you and I are
sealed in God's covenant determination for us. This is what Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 3, verses 1 and 2, and particularly verse 3. Do we begin again to commend
ourselves or need we ask some others epistles of commendation
to you or letters of commendation from you? You know what he saw
there up? Do I need a resume to affirm and authenticate who
I am as an apostle? And do I need you to affirm that?
Do I need, you know how, when you, when people ask you, uh,
you know, if you want to work at this place, give me three
references. folks that will affirm that you're a credible individual,
unless we hire a joker. The apostle Paul says, now, do
you really believe that we need letters of commendation from
folks as if somehow that's going to authenticate or give credibility
to who we are? I want you to hear verse two
and three. You are our epistles. You got that? Are our epistles written in our
hearts known and read of all men Now watch this for as much
as you are manifestly declared To be the what epistles of christ
stop right there It's amazing Do you know what christ was he
was an epistle for his father He was a letter of commendation
for the father. He was a manuscript of evidence
affirming the reality of the father. Christ became for the
father, the evidence, credible evidence of his existence, of
his goodness, of his kindness, of his grace, his mercy, of his
attributes, of his characteristics, of his nature, of his ontology,
of his predicates, of who he is, what he did. Jesus affirmed
the reality of the father. This is how he could say if you
have seen me you have what? Listen and and and and without
me you can never have the father Christ came as a living epistle
Commending the father he commended him by word. He commended him
by deed. He committed him by life. Is
that true? And and and in that same way
the Spirit of God writes on the hearts of all God's people the
same inscripturation of biblical truth that was given in written
form, given in oral form, given in the traditions of the prophet.
He writes it on our hearts so that we actually become epistles. Am I making some sense? I'm talking
about the impact of the word of God when it comes in a saving
way so that not only are you the kind of individual walking
around with a Bible in your hand, for remember now, in the first
century, everybody didn't have a Bible. Very few people had
a Bible, like very few people in third world countries have
a Bible today. How are they going to be commendations of God, saying
they know God, they love God, they're sons and daughters of
God, if the Spirit of God doesn't do something for them by way
of taking the living word and the oral word and writing it
down in their heart and making them living epistles written
and known on the hearts of men. Am I making some sense? This
is what Luke is talking about with regards to the impact of
what Christ has did in his incarnation. And I want to make sure that
you understand that because we are about to get into, we're
about to get into the nature of the church. Okay. We're about
to get into what the church is and what its job is, what the
nature of the church is and what its job is. And if this is true,
what we're about to get into, Luke is going to actually give
us an expose of what I just shared with you about what the spirit
of God does when he takes the word of God and he creates new
creatures in Christ and he makes them collectively epistles by
which God is commendated, commended to men and women all over the
world. This is what you're about to get into. So we moved to point
number two in our outline. Are you guys following me so
far? Point number two. Who is the human author? Go back to our text. Who was
the human author of the book? Obviously, I have just shared
with you that it's who. Yeah, but that don't mean anything
because y'all don't know Luke. So let's just talk about Luke
for just a hot second. How many of you guys in your
life have ever, have met a person whose name is Luke? How many?
Now watch this. See, that's a little less than
50%. For whatever reason, mama don't like the word Luke. Now,
the reason I raise that question is this. Just to say the author
of the book, the human author of the book of Acts and the gospel
of Luke is Luke is not to say much at all. Who is Luke? Well, there are a few things
I'm going to say about that with regards to our text. We're going
to affirm it with some scripture. And then we're going to move
forward. Now, you notice I raised the question, who is the what
kind of Arthur human Arthur, right? Cause we have our, uh,
skeptics who deny that the spirit of God is the ultimate Arthur
of scripture, right? So when I use the term human
Arthur, what I am talking about is, uh, agency, right? I'm talking agency. I am not
talking about source. I am not talking about the efficacious
mean. I'm talking about instrumentality.
So when I say the human author, I am simply saying that God uses
means by which he communicates his word. And the human agency
is a man named Luke. Now in your outline, it tells
you something about Luke. So we're gonna read a few things
about that. So we can go on to our third point. Who is the human
author? He's called Luke, the beloved
what? The beloved physician. Now, how
do theologians derive that? Well, we derive that by, as it
were, reading other passages of scripture that speak to the
person of Luke. Go with me in your Bible now
to Philemon. Second Timothy, first. Second
Timothy, chapter 4, verse 11. Then we'll go to Colossians.
Probably should start at Colossians, but let me start at Second Timothy,
chapter 4. I think I wrote that because I was conscious of it
as I was putting together my notes. In 2 Timothy 4, verse
11, here's what it says. As Paul is writing his second
pastoral epistle to Timothy, he says, only Luke is what? Now, it's important for you to
mark that because in the apostles' ministry, the apostles' Paul's
ministry, a lot of people who had started off with him were
not with him at the end of his ministry. You know, folks will
start with you, but they won't finish with you. You only have,
you only know who your friends are when they are the friends
who start with you, go through trouble with you and finish with
you. Luke therefore is a beloved friend
of Paul because all the hell that Paul went through for the
gospel sake, guess who was there? Brother Luke. Brother Luke ain't
no joke. He was supervised by and controlled
and governed by the spirit of God as well. And Paul says only
Luke is with me when he began to describe a partial falling
away of people who were identified with the apostle Paul in his
ministry. But when the heat was on, they
abandoned him. Now go with me to Colossians
chapter four, verses 14 and 18. I want you to see it here as
well. Colossians chapter four, verses
14 through eight, 14 and 18. This will affirm once again,
The fact that Luke is present in the ministry of the apostle
Paul, who will become a major component in the book of Acts
as well. In Colossians chapter four, verse 14, let me start
back at verse 12. Epaphras, who is one of you,
that is he's a Colossian, a servant of Christ, salutes you always,
laboring fervently for you in prayer, that you may stand perfect
and complete in all the will of God, That's the kind of pastors
we need. We need pastors who pray for
the people of God, that they might stand perfect and complete
in all the will of God. You guys are going to hear something
about that on Sunday. For I bear him record that he
has a great zeal for you and them that are in Laodicea and
them in the Hierapolis. Verse 14, here it is. Luke, the
beloved physician and Demas greets you also. One of the things I
loved about the apostle Paul, With him being the kind of confrontational
preacher, look at verse 18 again. Let me see here. Is that it?
No, that's not it. So turn with me also now in your Bible to
the book of Philemon. Philemon will be after Titus. You will find that right before
the book of Hebrews, Philemon, and notice what it says in verse
24. The Apostle Paul and once again
in his salutation makes mention of those believers who are conscious
of the Saints all over Palestine all the way to to Rome their
salute the Epiphas my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus Marcus
Aristarchus These are all Greeks Demas Lucas my fellow laborer
see the word Lucas that means he was a Greek you guys understand
that One of the evidences of being a Greek was that at the
end of their name was a stem, either it was an A-S or a U-S,
and it indicated being of the Greek culture. Now, the other
little note that you might mark, and I think I'll build on this
later is, it's in your outline, that he was a Syrian from Antioch
according to tradition. He was a Syrian, the Gentile
Syrian from Antioch according to tradition. And having written
the book of Acts, He was delighted to say, and they were first called
Christians where? In Antioch. He had a little bit
of a personal invested interest in that because they were first
called Christians in his own hometown. He's the beloved Luke. God had brought him along for
the cause of the ministry. And he is the one who writes
both the book of Acts as well as the book of Luke. Now I wanna
move on into a few other things under who is the human author?
He is Luke, he is a Syrian from Antioch according to tradition.
Now, the date of the writing, the date of the writing of the
book of Acts as well as the book of Luke. Now, what I'm about
to say is different than the dating of the events of the book
of Acts and the book of Luke. That's a little bit different.
When a person writes a book, they can write a book in the
year 2013. And they can yet be writing about events that took
place in the Renaissance period. And they can say, I am covering
the time of the Renaissance until the Enlightenment anywhere from
1500s to 1700s AD. You guys follow me? So the historical
argument or evidence that has been laid out concerning the
writing of the book is that Luke probably wrote the book anywhere
from 64 AD to 85 AD. Now the book was written encompassing
the time from about 8030 to 33 all the way up to 8063. You guys
see that in your outline? And that's what most, this is
what most scholars would say. However, if I'm gonna be true
to the book of Luke, I would have to actually say that Luke
encompassed most likely a period of time that began in 7 B.C. to 4 B.C. all the way up to A.D. 63 or 64. I'm just going to put
that out there for the record for those theologians and scholars
and pastors who listen to me. I would say that the book was
written that that Luke is covering a time from the birth of Christ,
which is not A.D. 1. It's B.C. 7 to 4, and we know that by the
book of Luke, inherent in the secular evidence were certain
rulers that existed during the time that Jesus was born. And
that time had to be four to seven years before what we call Anno
Domino, the year of our Lord, one. You guys follow that? But
Luke is beginning to write in the book of Acts during what
we would call the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, A.D. 33. Some people argue A.D. 30.
And the book of Acts closes out in Acts chapter 28, with Paul
being imprisoned in his own house, as it were, a home imprisonment,
a kind of confinement at home. This is about the year AD 63,
AD 64. So he's covering a good period
of time, AD 63, AD 64. And the interesting thing about
those dates, and we'll be able to get into that later on down
the line, is that, Luke's gospel is going to actually be dealing
with what our next point has to do with Luke's time period. The historicity of the book of
Luke is dealing with what God knew would be a major transition,
a major transition of his covenant purpose, a major transition. So the third thing that we're
going to deal with is the book of acts is the great, what great
transition. That's right. So now, can you
imagine if all you had was the four gospels, Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, and then immediately you jump into the epistle of
the Roman, the epistle of 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, 3 Corinthians,
I mean, 2 Corinthians, and then all the other epistles, and even
the book of Revelation, and not have the book of Acts. Wouldn't there be a major gap
in your thought Why? Because the book of Acts becomes
for us the bridge between the incarnation and the life and
ministry of Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the birth and
life of the church. Don't give me a set of epistles
that corrects the church before telling me how the church came
into existence, how it formed itself, how it structured itself,
What it went through that become the kind of institution that
it was For which now you are giving me pistols epistles of
correction So what I want to share with you is that the book
of acts is the great transition It's an historical bridge with
Christ at the center. Is that legitimate? We'll be
able to demonstrate this when we go through the book as I said
to us as the as we opened up the study, at the center is Christ. And it starts at Calvary, that's
the major transition point, and it goes to the end of time. And the center point becomes
the point in which you and I are dealing with the book of what?
Acts. It deals with the birth of the
church. It deals with the life of the
church. It deals with suffering of church. It also deals with
what we're going to see is the fulfillment of the church. I'll
talk about that here in a moment, but I want to run through some
things for you in your mind. These are going to come back
to you down the line. The book of acts is the great
transition from Judaism to Christianity. It's a great transition from
law to grace. The law of grace is a great transition
from words to faith. It's the great transition from
Calvary, the foundation stone event. You guys understand what
I mean by the foundation stone event is the great transition
from the foundation stone. Whenever you're going to build
a temple, build a house, particularly the Old Testament day, you lay
what was called a foundation stone, correct? The foundation
stone is who? Christ is the foundation stone.
Once that foundation stone is laid, guess what? You're telling
everybody we are about to build. You lay a foundation stone and
the foundation stone is Calvary. So the cross work of Jesus Christ,
including his resurrection, he becomes the foundation stone,
which means a temple, a church is about to be built. That's
from Calvary to the end of time. But it's a transition point because
it's moving from The old testament side of god's word to the new
testament side is from calvary the foundation stone event To
the laborers of the apostles in the building of the temple
stone by stone. Y'all got that We're going to
be moving from christ's work Personally and exclusively in
the atonement that he accomplished at calvary to the work of the
apostles laying stones upon that one cornerstone by which the
church gets built. This is what you're gonna get
to see through the book of Acts. The book of Acts is a transition
from, now listen to me now, the head to the body. From the head,
the chief cornerstone, to the body. From the work of the head
to the work of the body. from the work of the head, which
is Christ to the work of the body, which is primarily, but
not exclusively the apostles. Are y'all following me so far?
So this is a great transition because we have already concluded
that Luke has tied together inseparably. The first treaties, our first
words with the second words is going to be a smooth flow. As
we unpack chapter one, we'll see that Christ will commission
his apostles, he will inaugurate his apostles, he will inaugurate
the early church to do what the body is called to do in accordance
with the will of the head. The head has done its part, the
body will do its part. Am I making some sense? Now,
the reason I'm stressing this is because by way of application,
I want you to ask yourself, what role do you play in the body? Y'all got that? Now, I'm gonna
go on to share a few more things with you, and then we'll begin
to wrap this up. I'm close to getting past these points, and
that'll be good, because I'm looking forward to the exegetical
labors of the book down the line. So we go from Judaism to Christianity,
from law to grace, from faith to words, from the head to the
body, from Calvary, the foundation stone event, to the labors of
the apostles and the building of the temple, stone upon stone.
It's gonna be beautiful for you and I to see how the Spirit of
God works through human history, To deal with the building of
the church, which is what Jesus said, that's the top of your
outline. You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church
and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Is that true?
If it weren't true, you and I wouldn't be in existence today. Let me
go on. And I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever you shall bind
on earth shall have already been bound in heaven. And whatsoever
you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Hear what
Jesus said to the disciples. And so the book of Acts will
depict for us the outworking of the authority that Christ
had given to the apostles. We'll get to raise a big mirror
up against ourselves and see where we stand. And he goes on,
it goes on to say, the book of Acts is the great transition
from the second kingdom expression in what we call theocratic Israel,
theocratic Israel to the kingdom of heaven in the church. Y'all have that in your outline?
from the second kingdom expressed in the theocratic Israel. Now
let me just touch on that just a bit. There are three stages
of kingdom manifestation that the Word of God describes will
take place in our world. Actually, three are taking place
now. Probably there's a fourth one too, which we call the reality
of the kingdom, the fulfillment of the kingdom. The first stage
is what we call the patriarchal stage. During the days of the
patriarchs, God's kingdom was manifested among the fathers. They ruled, they functioned as
the spokespersons for God in their families and in their tribes. This is why when we read in our
Bibles about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and even Noah and Lamech
and Methuselah, Others that these were heads of the family in whom
the Spirit of God worked and that's why Hebrews 1 1 says God
in sundry times and different manners spoke to our what? fathers That was the patriarchal
period that first manifestation of the kingdom of God among the
patriarchs. The patriarchs became the calendar
of history. They became the vehicle by which
God's revelation was passed on orally as a tradition to their
families until we come to the days of Abraham, where Abraham
now is going to cap off 20 generations from Adam to Abraham. We learn
this in biblical theology. Remember, ladies, 10 generations
from Adam to Noah, 10 generations from Noah to Abraham. And from Abraham to Christ, there
would be the transition from the patriarchal system to the
theocratic system. That is a monarchy with God as
king ruling through his people, Israel, correct? That monarchy,
which with God as king ruling through his people, Israel, would
operate all the way up to what we call the captivity in 587
BC when God would destroy it because of his rebellion, disobedience.
And then Jesus would come on the scene. where Israel is subjugated
to the Roman Empire powers. Israel can call itself a kingdom
all at once, but it really was no kingdom at all. And this is
why Jesus said in Matthew chapter 21, when he gave the parable
of the servant in the vineyard, the owner of the vineyard lending
out the vineyard to a husbandman, he says, and the kingdom of God
shall be taken from you and given unto others bearing the fruit
thereof. You guys remember that? And the
rulers were upset with Christ because they understood that
he was actually speaking against them. See, they were claiming
theocratic power when they had none. They not only did not have
theocratic power or monarchial power, they didn't have theocratic
power. This is an aside, but this will
be worth the information to you. When God destroyed Israel in
587 BC under the The rule of Nebuchadnezzar Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar tore Israel apart destroyed it and devastated it
burned it to the ground For the first time it happened again
under Antiochus Epiphanes But but when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed
Israel, he took all the gold and the silver and everything
took it to his house, right? His son had a party remember that's when
God made the first big old big-screen TV Called the finger of God remember
that in any event I You know what was destroyed that was never
recovered? The Ark of the Covenant. Never
recovered. So what happened was God allowed
them to rebuild the temple in the days of Cyrus, right? King
Cyrus, a Persian. But he never allowed them to
reestablish a theocracy because Israel had not truly repented.
Can you imagine this? They're going through the form
of worship where the high priest is supposed to go into the Holy
of Holies every year and ain't no ark in there. He pretending
that he's meeting God in the Shekinah glory and ain't nothing
back there. Are you hearing me? See, God
had never ultimately and fully returned to the temple because
they had not returned to him. This is why in the days of the
two witnesses, John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus, Their ministry
was primarily, not exclusively, but primarily outside of the
temple. John's ministry was down at the River Jordan. It was in
the wilderness. They had to come to John. John
didn't go to that farce of a religion, which was an empty shell because
God was not there. And when God showed up, they
weren't even ready for him then. He had to be born in a stable
with the cows and the pigs. And even though the rulers had
the book of the law and they knew the prophecy when the wise
men came and said, we seek Jesus of Nazareth for our star has
shown us where he is. They said, well, according to
the book, he down the street, but we're not interested. Remember
that these are the rulers of the church. They didn't want
him. He came into his own, his own
received him. Not the world was made by him, but the world knew
him not. And they killed him. Didn't they? This is gonna be
explicit in the book of Acts. I'm fascinated by our present
neo Judaism and this this fascination for Ethnic Israel and how some
of their authors will say it wasn't the Jews that killed Jesus
It was a Gentile the book of Acts says it several times over
you with wicked hands have both crucified and killed the Lord
of Glory literally Talk about the Jews and it's Paul and Peter
the ones who are indicting their own people for that crime committed
It's very important for you to understand that that crime committed
was prophesied in Exodus 12 with regards to Passover The whole
nation was to take the Passover lamp and kill it. It was pointing
to Christ's crucifixion It was necessary for what we call the
transition the transition which is what the boys are gonna struggle
through in the book of Acts. I got a few more minutes, I'll
close it down here in a moment. But you and I are dealing with what
we call the great transition. And it's the great transition
from the second kingdom expression in theocratic Israel to the kingdom
of heaven in the what? Church. Okay, so we're there
now in terms of a basic overall introduction to the book of Acts. Let me ask you the question as
we get ready to wrap this up. What is the church? I want you to think it through.
I don't want you to give any hasty answers. I just want you to think
it through. Because a lot of people think the church is sort
of like a grocery bag that possesses the contents essential to their
life, like the food and stuff that goes in the bag, You can
discard the bag, but you need the food. That's how a lot of
people think about the church like the church is Dispensable
to the cause of Christ. Are you following me for a moment
follow me for a moment? But what is the church? so the church
becomes for a lot of people the placenta after the birth is born
if you had enough babies you understand that placenta played
a major role in the life and formation of the child but once
the child comes is able to breathe and gets whacked on the butt
cries a little bit we can throw the placenta away that's how
folks think about the church today that the church is really
something that we can discard once we get Jesus in our life
you got that but really what is the church and that's what
the book of Acts is really going to hone in on is the nature of
the calling, the purpose, the privilege, the essential role
that the church will play in the manifestation of the glory
of God. What is the church? If the church now is that third
expression of the kingdom of heaven, and you read it in Acts
chapter one, by the way, we're going to be talking a lot about
the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God, because they
are synonymous terms. When you work through the scriptures
carefully, there's no distinction between the kingdom of heaven
and the kingdom of God. People make distinctions, but
they are what we call artificial distinctions. Even grammatically,
we can demonstrate that they are interchangeable concepts.
But early on in Acts chapter one, the disciples are asking,
when will the kingdom be restored? But earlier on, Jesus is teaching
them about the kingdom. And all through Christ's ministry,
he was talking about what? The kingdom. And you know what
he said? The kingdom of God is at hand. So as we go through
the book of Acts, what you're going to understand is we are
not waiting for the kingdom. The kingdom was always at hand.
And it was at hand when the king showed up. So I'm looking forward to unpacking
that too, because it's critical. If my proposition is true, ladies
and gentlemen, that the kingdom expression, the presence of God,
the purpose of God, the will of God manifested in that theocratic
system called national Israel was changed from them, removed
from them and given to the church What then is the church? Literally
the word church is the Greek term what? Ekklesia. Ekklesia. And I simply wanna
make this acknowledgement or express this thought about that
and we'll get to work our way through that over the whole of
this year. The Ekklesia are the called out
ones. The Ecclesiastes are the called
out ones. So I want you to follow this now. When you say that you
are a Christian, you are saying that you are a person who has
been called by God out of one dimension and placed into another
dimension. When you say you are a Christian,
you are saying that you have been called out of the dominion
of darkness into the kingdom of God's what dear son. And that the way the writer to
the Colossians put it, he says, we have been translated. You
want that word means it means that you have been spoiled by
a power greater than you taking you from your indigenous Original
home and translating you as slaves into another kingdom That's what
a Christian is. He is a transported object of
possession from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light
and he has been called out What that means then is that we are
to live like people and who have been called out of the world
and are operating in the world as a distinct entity called the
kingdom of God, that is the church on a mission. Are y'all hearing me? On a mission,
on a mission. See the book of Acts will set
forth for us Two very clear things. Let me just get on to that. Why
is it called the axe? Do you see that in your outline?
Why is it called the axe? I got one more point after that
and I'm done. Why is it called the axe? Isn't
that an interesting name? The book of axe. Why is it called
the axe? So in the early church, they
struggled with how to give a nomination or title to the book, because
it was really made up of two things. a historiography, a historical
analysis, and as it were, reassessment of the events that took place
during the days of the apostles. It's a historical narrative.
But it was more than a historical narrative. So I'm giving you
two points. It was a historical narrative with a very clear missiological
purpose. It was a historical narrative,
so you got history there. But it really is about a people
on a mission. Are y'all hearing me? It's really
about a people on a mission. In your outline, it goes like
this. I'm looking forward to unpacking this. The historical
character of the book is that it's a linear progression of
movement towards Rome on a geographical level, towards glory in terms
of its ultimate objective. So linear progression of movement
towards Rome. That's what the Book of Acts
is. So follow this. Y'all follow me? The master told
his servants, go ye into all the world. So that's linear progression
from point A to point B. When you read the Book of Acts,
that's what occurs. They start at Jerusalem. And
they make their way all the way to Rome. You got that? And in the process of going to
Rome, they have the opportunity to express their ethical character. See, so we're not just taking
a ride to Rome. We're not just going from Jerusalem
to Rome, taking a trip. We're doing something. And in
our outline, it says, What we discover that takes place in
the book of Acts is a repetitive practice of witnessing through
preaching. A repetitive practice of witnessing
through preaching. The historical character of the
book of Acts is a progression that starts at Jerusalem as its
center, but it's going to move away from Jerusalem into Rome
and ultimately, to California, but the ethical character of
those who have been commissioned to go is a repetitive practice
of witnessing to the glory of God through preaching. When you read through the book
of Acts, what are they doing? Preaching, preaching, preaching,
preaching, preaching, which is a lost skill in our church today. It is a law skill in our church
today. This is why, as we go through
the book of Acts, we will see how far off the mark we are in
terms of God's objective of reaching sinners with the gospel because
of the methodology that God honors alone. He only honors one methodology. He's called the church to one
task of which only the church can do. Nobody else can do the
tasks that the church can do. The church alone is uniquely
gifted to be God's witness, to teach and to preach. So the church's
job is not to hand out sandwiches. Sorry. The church's job is not
to pass out band-aids. I mean, you can do that as an
aside, like your second job. But the first job of the church
of the living God is to be a witness to the glory of God in Christ
by the means of preaching and teaching the word of God. Y'all
got that? That book will go from Acts chapter
two, all the way to the end of the book, talking about preaching
and teaching the word of God, because it's through preaching
and teaching, as you're going to learn on Sunday, that God
makes men perfect. So why the term acts? The literal
Greek word acts is the Greek term praxis, P-R-A-X-I-S, a Latin
term, Latin term. You know what the word praxis
means? Practice, practice, practice to do it over and over and over
and over and over and over again. You know who practices? You know
who practices? What they practice, a professional. Y'all got that? I'm a professional
witness to Christ. How do you know? Cause I practice
witnessing. I practice witnessing by preaching
and teaching every opportunity I get. This is not like a vacation
thing. I don't have a summer job. This
is who I am. This is what I do. And this is
what the church is supposed to be. The church is supposed to
be a witnessing institution, practicing the preaching of the
gospel to every creature, to every creature. And when we have
lost that mission, we are no longer the church of Jesus Christ.
Y'all got that? See, so we're going to be going
to work. There's a lot of stuff to get done in terms of rediscovering
our priorities, rediscovering our calling, rediscovering our
gifts, rediscovering our goal. Now, next week, Saints, what
I want to do is actually deal with one more thing is called
the structure. Do you see that in your outline?
I want to deal with the structure of the book. The structure of
the book. And it's really dealing with
the structure of the church. It's really dealing with the
structure of the church. And it's really actually dealing with
the structure of every church. So I want to say this for the
record. I have discovered that when I break the book of Acts
down into four parts, this is what I've discovered. There are
many ways to break the book down. Really good authors have broken
it down, 20 parts, 30 parts, 50 parts. I've broken it down
into four parts. The first part is fire. Fire. And we're going to take some
time to talk about that because we need to understand why fire
plays a critical role and the identity and the formation of
the church. Fire. Fire. You're going to see that we're
maintaining a covenant continuity from the Old Testament to the
new. Nothing's changing. Nothing's changing. But fire
is critical to the authenticity of the church. Critical. Then the next structure we're
going to be dealing with is the formation. I'm just going to
highlight it through the book of Acts, how that fire plays
a critical role in the formation of the church. Formation meaning
establishing the superstructure, the framework of what it means
to be the body of Christ. And then we're going to touch
on a little bit the frustrations. I want you to have an overview
of it, the frustrations of the church. And then we're going
to deal with the closing that is fulfillment of the church.
And that's not too big of a term, fulfillment. You see those four
stages that I've just shared with you right there? Are you
guys observing? Don't go to sleep on me yet. Those four stages
apply to every Christian. Can you see the possibility of
that? They apply to every Christian. Every Christian, when they are
authentically confronted by God, are set on fire of God. every Christian without exception. It's not possible to meet the
God of glory and not be set on fire for his own purpose. It's impossible. It's what happens
when every human being meets God in a saving way through Jesus
Christ. Am I making some sense? And that
fire becomes the impetus, the drive to shape and form your
identity in Christ so that you can do the job God has called
you to do. What comes with the formation
process is frustration, but frustration is part of maturity. So a lot of people get into frustration
mode and then they want to back away from the church. You're
going to see that in the book too. But frustration mode is
simply an aspect of what God necessarily must do. Are you
ready to keep you dependent on the fire? Instead of the mere
formation process, which man can take the formation and begin
to, as it were, create models, duplicate the formation and start
forms of godliness, empty of the substance. And God has to
frustrate it. So you can understand that it's
necessary for you to have the fire for the formation to actually
take place in a successful fashion and for us to result in its fulfillment. It's fulfillment. God has called
us to fulfill a task. Timothy, make full proof of your
ministry. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So this is what this whole year is going to be about
as we go through the book of Acts, unpacking this. So next
week we're going to be challenged with the fire, challenged with
the formation, challenged with the frustration. You're going
to understand some of the frustration. You know how it is. You go five
or 10 years in the Lord and then you enter into frustration mode.
Anybody know what I'm talking about? Frustration mode. And then you want to bail. But do you know your body has
been frustrated with your mind ever since you've been in existence.
And if your body could jump out of itself just to get away from
your mind, you'd be a mess. So let's pray. Father, thank
you for this time. Thank you for my brothers and sisters.
Thank you for this introduction to the book of Luke. We ask that
you would give us grace from week to week throughout the course
of this summer. and all through the spring and
the fall and the spring even to the end of the year 2014 to
grasp the depths of the glorious riches of Jesus Christ as they
shall be manifested by the work of the Spirit of God in the life
of your church which is beautiful and glorious in your own eyes
even if it's not in our eyes. We ask that you forgive us for
a low view of the church Forgive us for a low view of the church
for in doing so we have a low view of you and of your intentions
of your purposes. And then we ask that you grant
us the grace to be living epistles written and known on the hearts
of all men in a way that not only in our words, but in our
life, we commend you impressed upon people's hearts to say,
is that what God does? Do it for me. Forgive us of our
sins. Lead us home safely. Prepare
us to worship you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
On Sunday we pray in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.